GAELIC GAMES:THE HURLING season started off slowly and stayed that way for the longest time, like a rollercoaster climbing and creaking its way up a huge incline. Then last week we went joyously over the brow and the exhilaration continued in Croke Park yesterday as Clare beat Kilkenny by the thinnest of margins to claim their first ever All-Ireland Under-21 title.

Yes Kilkenny. Champions in the grade for four of the last six years. Kilkenny, the county who invented the notion of a conveyor belt of young talent.

Kilkenny, who led by a point with three minutes left – the sort of position from which generations of stripey men have been unimpeachable.

With a string of sensational late points, however, Clare hung in there and finally, a wondrous punt from midfielder Cormac O’Donovan crept over the crossbar and Clare had only 90 seconds more of desperate defending to do before the title was theirs.

A team drawn from the less storied parishes and clubs of Clare (Clonlara and Crusheen and Inagh/Kilnamona provided two thirds of the starting 15) thus claimed themselves a chunk of that special immortality which goes to those special underage teams who imbue their entire county with a renewed sense of hope and promise.

The core of this side had lost an especially heartbreaking Munster final to Tipperary in 2008 and had come back to the fray determined to push onto places where no Clare Under-21 side had been before. Life doesn’t always work that neatly, however. Just because your wife dies doesn’t mean your house won’t burn down.

There is something special, though, in the heart of this Clare side. Having escaped Munster, a first for any Clare side in this grade, they came through an epic semi-final with Galway wherein they left Joe Canning with four goals and seven points to his name but still on the losing side.

Yesterday’s game was a more restrained affair and there were times when Clare’s brave, direct style looked as if it would be insufficient to deal with yet another well-drilled Kilkenny outfit, whose attack was led by the quicksilver Richie Hogan.

In the end the pitch was flooded with Clare people and the young heroes were carried shoulder-high through a sea of yellow and blue towards the Hogan Stand. Another airing for Plan B.

There was less delirium surrounding the rather clinical demolition of Kilkenny by Cork’s relentlessly efficient camogie side in the preceding final.

It was Cork’s fifth win of the decade, their fourth in five years and the second time they have achieved back-to-back titles in the last few years.

The steady, smothering brilliance of the Cork defence restricted the young Kilkenny side to just two points from play in the hour.

There was yet more glory for Briege Corkery, who represents the county in the football final in a fortnight’s time.